Projects From My Photoshop Class

I thought it'd be fun to post two of the projects I worked on for my Photoshop class this summer.

One assignment was to choose a background and merge several subjects into it.

I chose a birch tree forest that I scanned from a book on China as my background.



Then I started scanning some images from a book documenting 1968 in America.

I ended up using

Elvis:




Jim Morrison:



And some creepy, vacant 60's fashion models:



And merged them into one.




This was done through the use of channels and masking to create the people selections, and a little tinkering with opacity to make Elvis' feet blend into the ground a bit better. I also cleaned the image using levels.

Another project was to choose a magazine cover and recreate it without using any of the cover images or text. This one was a lot harder. We could use images on the inside of the magazine, provided that they weren't the exact same photo from the cover. I chose Dwell magazine, another one that happened to be chilling around my house. I lucked out because the house that was on the cover was featured in the inside article. It was a different photo (taken from a slightly different angle, with different people standing on the balcony, at a different time of day.)

This is the original cover:



Here is my recreation:



The image from the inside of the magazine was on a two-page spread, so I used the stamp tool to merge the left and rights sides of the house back together.

I used the gradient tool to recreate the sky and the coloring on the word "DWELL". Using the pen tool, I outlined the original "DWELL" text to make it a selection. For the rest of the fonts, I just chose the closest I could find that were already installed on my computer. I had to do this in one night given my time schedule that week, so I didn't really bother making the text absolutely perfect.

The photo from the inside article had one man leaning on the railing of the balcony. I managed to take him out of the image, but I ran out of time to insert other people. If I were on less of a tight schedule, I would have found some people in suits to merge onto the balcony. All in all, I am happy with how this one turned out.

Vermont

Remember when I just moved to Rhode Island and I was really excited about it and updated on an almost regular basis for a little bit? Yeah, sorry I've been absentee.

I've been a busy kid. During August, all I have is work at the bookstore and perhaps a few movies to review, but I am otherwise schedule-free...which is ultimately me at my happiest. I hate a heavily scheduled life.

I am currently in Vermont for the first time in my life. I LOVE traveling. I love seeing new areas.

We are in a hotel in Ludlow (technically Proctorsville, but it is right on the border and the closest town center is Ludlow). This area is basically a ski resort, so lodging is super cheap right now since it is off-season. Bonnie and one of her co-workers like to plan pretend vacations during their slow moments at work, and she showed Bonnie this little package deal that her and her husband are going to take. Bonnie, having remembered that my birthday is coming up and that I have been sighing and saying things like, "I just need some sort of vacation that requires nothing but down time" decided she was going to take me on a one-night "vacation"/road trip to Vermont.

So for approx. $100, we are staying a night at a hotel in a very beautiful mountainous town in Vermont, with complimentary chocolates and champagne (cheesy but fun) and a gift certificate for $25 off a four course meal at the Castle Inn Restaurant. There is more expensive lodging in an actual castle on this property, but since we are lower middle class, we are staying at the more traditional hotel nearby. We also get a discount on a massage, but I have no plans to get one since my girlfriend already gives the best massages ever.

To top it all off, I slept in today and then woke up around 11am and started getting dressed/packed. Bonnie called to tell me she was running a few errands and then would be home. I stopped her in the middle of our hallway to ask her something and noticed she was holding her hand behind her back while leaning against the wall. She wouldn't let me see what she was holding until it was ready.

She bought me a new digital camera. I love it. The last one sucked for two reasons: the rechargeable batteries only lasted about 20 minutes and it had sand in it and basically sucked at working on a regular basis. This new one is perfect.

I feel mildy guilty since her birthday was about a month ago and all I got her was a vinyl version of the New Pornographers album "Challengers". She tries to make me feel better by saying that this road trip and the camera are for her as well.

Anyway, I'm happy and I'm going to go read now.